Ilkka Herola and Eero Hirvonen got what they wanted for once

Val di Fiemme

The first For the first time, the combined pairs competition in the program of the prestigious championships was, on paper, pretty much a perfect trip to Finland Ilkka to Herola and For Eero Hirvosen.

One jump from the hill and then 15 kilometers of skiing. Only two men instead of four in the previous team competition.

The situation became even more dreamlike on Thursday morning in Val di FIemme, when it turned out that it was snowing from the sky. Almost 30 cents of cinemas managed to accumulate by the start of the skiing section.

Herola and especially Hirvonen did not succeed in the hill section in doubles, but not many others managed to do the button jump either. The Predazzo hill had such a sticky setting that the differences remained small.

It seemed to get worse during the two and a half hours before the ski section. It’s not even possible to get more snow.

The medals were decided on the track in a shockingly heavy value race. The situation was so absurd that the maintenance manager did not connect Pekka Kemppi remembered nothing similar.

The pairs competition was skied to the top of everything on a 1.5 kilometer course familiar from cross-country sprints. Even full-time skiers raved about the rigors of the track and the long working sections. Having won the women’s pair sprint qualifying Jonna Sundlingin the time was Wednesday 3.10.49. On Thursday, it took more than a minute longer for the combined men to go around the track.

Cross-country skiers postponed only three legs in Wednesday’s pair sprint, but what were the combined men made to do?

To ski the course five times in a row.

For Herola and Hirvone, it was the same as ringing a brother’s bell.

Finnish caught Germany’s gap of almost half a minute already by 3/10ths. After that, nothing happened in the race for a long time, and Norway, Japan and Austria were also in the top group.

Then, in the midst of the tumult, there started to be a rumble.

Finland’s medal was secured in the penultimate leg of the anchors, while Germany’s Vincent Geiger fell twice in the mud and also dragged Japan along. Norway, Austria and Finland escaped.

In the next section, Austria was beaten Stefan Retteneggerafter which Finland and Norway swept the landscape.

Hirvonen had a ferocious final twist on the anchor section Jens Oftebrota against, but the Norwegian was a couple of meters stronger.

Herola and Hirvonen took Olympic silver and are now going to the bank laughing.

Hirvonen and Herola had already won the men’s Olympic medals before Thursday. The two have been in Fiemme in a tough hill mood, but the previous races already showed that in these races the skiing part has a bigger importance than usual.

Tesero’s track profiles are heavy, and the weather conditions have not made the job any easier. It has suited Herola and Hirvone perfectly.

Neither of the Finns is a very explosive sprinter compared to many of the top guys, but in tough and slow conditions, their endurance characteristics have risen to an unpredictable value.

Hirvosen has a great oxygen uptake capacity for a combined athlete. Herola, on the other hand, is a proper twister, a nobleman of workers.

The above-mentioned characteristics are not usually celebrated on the park ski slopes of the combined World Cup. In Val di Fiemme, the situation was once again different.

Herola and Hirvonen have earned their Olympic glory. In the last decade, the combined team has sunk in interest a light year away from the peak years, which has also been reflected in the national team’s operating conditions.

Penni has had to be stretched here and there, and the duo’s training conditions have sometimes been far from optimistic.

It is not known whether the rain of medals in Milan-Cortina will change the big picture at all, or whether the whole sport will even be on the Olympic program four years from now.

You can worry about that later. Now it’s time for the kicked-in-the-head national team to enjoy.